Drones operating in Australia have acquired a formidable foe in the wedge-tailed eagle, or “wedgie.” In an article headlined “Bold Eagles: Angry Birds Are Ripping $80,000 Drones Out of the Sky” in The Wall Street Journal, Mike Cherney recounts how an eagle downed a drone with a 7-foot wingspan used for mapping. Drone operator Daniel Parfitt believed the drone was too big for a bird to damage. “I had 15 minutes to go on my last flight on my last day, and one of these wedge-tailed eagles just dive-bombed the drone and punched it out of the sky,” Cherney quotes Parfitt as saying. “It ended up being a pile of splinters.”
The adult birds weigh anywhere from 4.4 to 12.7 lbs. and can have wingspans to 9 ft. 4 in. Cherney reports they will kill sheep, eat kangaroos, and harass humans in hang gliders. He writes, “Birds all over the world have attacked drones, but the wedge-tailed eagle is particularly eager to engage in dogfights, operators say.”
He adds, “A long-term solution remains up in the air.” Operators have tried aerial maneuvers to evade the birds, while some have considered camouflage, pepper spray, or noise devices. One option is to operate in the mornings, when the birds are less active because the thermal drafts that assist them in flight have yet to develop.
Cherney writes, “The problem is growing more acute as Australia makes a push to become a hot spot for drones.”
Cherney’s article includes a video of a drone under attack by one of the eagles, which are, according to James Rennie, founder of a drone mapping and inspection business in Melbourne, “the ultimate angry birds.”
